Though Naples is admirably fituated for commerce, and no king dom produces the neceffaries and luxuries of life in greater profufion, yet trade is but in a languishing condition; the beft filks come from Lyons, and the beft woollen goods from England.

The chief articles manufactured here, at prefent, are, filk ftockings, foap, fnuff-boxes, or tortoife-fhells; and the lava of Mount Vefuvius, tables, and ornamental furniture, of marble.

They are thought to embroider here better than even in France; and their macaroni is preferred to that made in any other part of Italy. The Neapolitans excel alfo in liqueurs and confections; particularly in one kind of confection, which is fold at a very high price, called Diabolonis. This drug, as you will guess from its name, is of a very hot and fimulating nature, and what I fhould think by no means requifite to Neapolitan conftitutions.

The inhabitants of this town are computed at three hundred and fifty thousand. I make no doubt of their amounting to that number; for though Naples is not one third of the fize of London, yet many of the ftreets here are more crowded than the Strand. In London and Paris, the people who fill the streets are mere paffengers, hurrying from place to place on bufinefs; and when they choose to converse, or to amufe themfelves, they refort to the public walks or gardens: at Naples the citizens have fewer avocations of bufinefs to excite their activity; no public walks, or gardens, to which they can refort; and are, therefore, more frequently feen

fauntering and converfing in the streets, where a great proportion of the pooreft fort, for want of habitations, are obliged to fpend the night as well as the day. While you fit in your chamber at London, or at Paris, the ufual noife you hear from the freets, is that of carriages; but at Naples, where they talk with uncommon vivacity, and where whole streets full of talkers are in continual employment, the noife of carriages is completely drowned in the aggregated clack of human voices. In the midst of all this idleness, fewer riots or outrages of any kind happen, than might be expected in a town where the police is far from being ftrict, and where fuch multitudes of poor unemployed people meet together every day. This partly proceeds from the national character of the Italians, which, in my opinion, is quiet, fubmiffive, and averfe to riot or fedition; and partly to the common people being univerfally fober, and never inflamed with ftrong and fpirituous liquors, as they are in the northern countries. Iced water and lemonade are among the luxuries of the lowest vulgar; they are carried about in little barrels, and fold in halfpenny's worth. The half naked lazzarone is often tempted to spend the fmall pittance deftined for the maintenance of his family on this bewitching beverage, as the most diffolute of the low people in London fpend their wages on gin and brandy; fo that the fame extravagance which cools the mob of the one city, tends to inflame that of the other to acts of excefs and bru tality.

There

There is not, perhaps, a city in the world, with the fame number of inhabitants, in which fo few contribute to the wealth of the community by useful, or by productive labour, as Naples; but the numbers of priests, monks, fiddlers, lawyers, nobility, footmen, and lazzaronis, furpafs all reasonable proportion; the last alone are computed at thirty or forty thoufand. If these poor fellows are idle, it is not their own fault; they are continually running about the streets, as we are told of the artificers of China, offering their fervice, and begging for employment; and are confidered, by many, as of more real utility than any of the claffes above mentioned.

The Neapolitan nobility are exceffively fond of fplendour and fhow. This appears in the brilliancy of their equipages, the number of their attendants, the richness of their drefs, and the grandeur of

their titles.

I am affured, that the king of Naples counts a hundred perfons with the title of prince, and still a greater number with that of duke, among his fubjects. Six or feven of thefe have eftates, which produce from ten to twelve or thirteen thousand pounds a year; a confiderable number have fortunes of about half that value; and the annual revenue of many is not above one or two thoufand pounds. With refpect to the inferior orders of nobility, they are much poorer; many counts and marquiffes have not above three or four hundred pounds a year of paternal eftate, many ftill lefs, and not a few enjoy the title without any eftate what

ever.

When we confider the magnificence of their entertainments, the fplendour of their equipages, and the number of their fervants, we are furprised that the richest of them can fupport fuch expensive establishments. I dined, foon after our arrival, at the prince of Franca Villa's; there were about forty people at table; it was meagre day; the dinner confifted entirely of fish and vegetables, and was the most magnificent entertainment 1 ever faw, comprehending an infinite variety of dishes, a vast profusion of fruit, and the wines of every country in Europe. I dined fince at the prince lacci's. I fhall mention two circumstances, from which you may form an idea of the grandeur of an Italian palace, and the number of domestics which fome of the nobility retain. We paffed through twelve or thirteen large rooms before we arrived at the dining-room; there were thirty-fix perfons at table, none ferved but the prince's domeftics, and each gueft had a footman behind his chair; other domeftics belonging to the prince remained in the adjacent rooms, and in the hall. We afterwards paffed through a confiderable number of other rooms in our way to one from which there is a very commanding view.

No eftate in England could fupport fuch a number of fervants, paid and fed as English fervants are; but here the wages are very moderate indeed, and the greater number of men fervants, belonging to the first families, give their attendance through the day only, and find beds and provifions for themselves. It must be remembered, alfo, that few of the nobles give entertainments, and thofe

who

who do not are faid to live very fparingly; fo that the whole of their revenue, whatever that may be, is exhausted on articles of show.

As there is no opera at prefent, the people of fashion generally pafs part of the evening at the corfo, on the fea fhore. This is the great fcene of Neapolitan fplendour and parade; and, on grand occafions, the magnificence difplayed here will ftrike a stranger very much. The finest carriages are painted, gilt, varnished, and lined, in a richer and more beautiful manner, than has as yet become fashionable either in England or France; they are often drawn by fix, and fometimes by eight horses.

and-twenty. He is a prince of great activity of body, and a good conftitution; he indulges in frequent relaxations from the cares of government and the fatigue of thinking, by hunting and other exercifes; and (which ought to give a high idea of his natural talents) he never fails to acquire a very confiderable degree of perfection in thofe things to which he applies. He is very fond, like the king of Pruffia, of reviewing his troops, and is perfectly master of the whole myftery of the manual exercife. I have had the honour, oftener than once, of feeing him exercife the different regiments which form the garrifon here: he always gave the word of command with his own royal mouth, and with a precifion which feemed to aftonish the whole court. This monarch is also a very excellent fhot; his uncommon fuccefs this diverfion is thought to have roufed the jealoufy of his most catholic majetty, who also values himself on his fkil as a marksman. The correfpondence between those two great perfonages often relates to their favourite amufement.-A gentleman, who came lately from Madrid, told me, that the king,. on fume occafion, had read a letter which he had just received from his fon at Naples, wherein he complained of his bad fuccefs on a fhooting party, having killed no more than eighty birds in a day: and the Soanith monarch, turning to his courtiers, faid, in a plaintive tone of voice, "Mio filio piange "di non aver fatto piu di ottante "beccacie in uno giorno, quando "mi crederci l'uono il più felice "del mondo fe poteffe fare qua. "ranta." All who take a be

It is the mode here to have two running footmen, very gaily dreffed, before the carriage, and three or four fervants in rich liveries behind; thefe attendants are generally the handfomeft young men that can be procured. The ladies or gentlemen within the coaches, glitter in all the brilliancy of lace, embroidery, and jewels. The Neapolitan carriages, for gala days, are made on purpofe, with very large windows, that the fpectators may enjoy a full view of the parties within. Nothing can be more fhowy than the harness of the horfes; their heads and manes are ornamented with the rareft plumage, and their tails fet off with ribband and artificial flowers, in fuch a graceful manner that you are apt to think they have been adorned by the fame hands that dreffed the heads of the ladies, and not by common grooms.

His Neapolitan majefty feems to be about the age of fix or feven

at

bufband, a dutiful fon, and an indulgent father.

The queen of Naples is a beautiful woman, and feems to poffefs the affability, good-humour, and benevolence, which diftinguith, in fuch an amiable manner, the Auftrian family.

The hereditary jurifdiction of the nobles over their vaffals fubfifts, both in the kingdom of Naples and Sicily, in the full rigour of the feudal government. The peasants therefore are poor; and it depends entirely on the perfonal character of the mafters, whether their poverty is not the leaft of their grievances.

The court of Naples has not yet ventured, by one open act of authority, to abolish the immoderate power of the lords over their tenants. But it is believed that the minifter fecretly withes for its destruction; and in cafes of flagrant oppreffion, when complaints are brought before the legal courts, or directly to the king himself, by the pealants against their lord, it is generally remarked that the minifter favours the complainant. Notwithstanding this, the mafters have fo many opportunities of oppreffing, and fuch various methods of teazing, their vaffals, that they generally chufe to bear their wrongs in filence; and perceiving that thofe who hold their lands immediately from the crown, are in a much easier fituation than themselves, without raifing their hopes to perfect freedom, the height of their withes is to be fheltered from the vexations of little tyrants, under the unlimited power of one common master. The objects of royal attention, they fondly imagine, are too fub. VOL. XXIII.

lime, and the minds of kings too generous, to ftoop to, or even to countenance, in their fervants, the minute and unreasonable exactions, which are wrung at prefent from the hard hands of the exhaufted labourer.

Though the Neapolitan nobility ftill retain the ancient feudal authority over the peasants, yet their perfonal importance depends, in a great measure, on the favour of the king; who, under pretext of any offence, can confine them to their own eftates, or imprison them at pleasure; and who, without any alledged offence, and without going to fuch extremes, can infli&t a punishment, highly fenfible to them, by not inviting them to the amusements of the court, or not receiving them with fmiles when they attend on any ordinary occafion. Unless this prince were so very impolitic as to difguft all the nobility at once, and fo unite the whole body against him, he has little to fear from their refentment. Even in cafe of fuch an union, as the nobles have loft the affection and attachment of their peafants, what could they do in oppofition to a ftanding army of thirty thoufand men, entirely devoted to the crown? The eftablishment of ftanding armies has univerfally given ftability to the power of the prince, and ruined that of the great lords. No nobility in Europe can now be faid to inherit political importance, or to act independent of, or in oppofition to, the influence of the crown; except the temporal peers of that part of Great Britain called England.

The citizens of Naples form a fociety of their own, perfectly diftin&t from the nobility; and C

although